Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3
1829-09-26
Morning to the Office. Occupied in reading a little of Marshall but I did not progress much. I cannot very fully explain how the time was passed but it went and apparently not without its uses. My father came in as I had expected and sat with me an hour. He seemed in very good spirits and talked upon a multitude of things, more especially the inscription which he is making to my Grandfather’s memory, and also of my Mother from whom he receives good accounts this morning.1 I am very glad to hear of this as I had feared much for her. He talked also of business and gave me commissions as usual. Little or nothing occurred otherwise. I returned to dine.
My father and Mr. Brooks dined with me.2 I did not feel easy as is my custom. When is it that I do feel easy in presence of Mr. Brooks—and why do I not? These questions are to me inexplicable. Perhaps the sense of my being a little dependent upon him for a good opinion is the thing which works upon me as a check. I have always felt as if there was a doubt about me upon his mind and as long as this lasts it does not seem to me probable that I shall ever alter. The dinner was therefore not nearly so pleasant to me as that which we had on last Saturday, and I was very glad that it was done.
In the afternoon Mr. Curtis called to see my father and I went up with Mr. Brooks to have him examine the Bookcases as he proposes having some made at his own house. Thus the time passed until the Carriage called for us by agreement to go to Quincy. And we started at five. Upon leaving, I met my Classmate Cunningham who has just returned from Europe.3 He does not look so well as he did and I had no opportunity to do more than barely recognize him. Our ride was through Milton and we did not reach Quincy until quite late and I was very cold. Indeed I found today that I had in some manner caught a cold which was not a pleasant idea to me. For it always gives me an impression that I have contracted a habit of body a little unfavourable. After a good Supper and a little Fire which was not by any means un-28comfortable, we spent the evening very quietly in amusing Conversation until an early retirement.
Mainly a report on her health: weak, but mending. Affectionate messages for CFA and ABA (to JQA, 21 Sept., Adams Papers).
Relations between the Adams and Brooks families appear to have been generally cordial, particularly after the engagement of Charles and Abby in Feb. 1827. There were numerous visits of Mr. and Mrs. Brooks at Quincy and of JQA and LCA at Medford sometimes of several days’ duration (Brooks, Farm Journal, July–Oct. 1827, Aug. 1828, July–Aug. 1829 passim). On a number of occasions, the two men were invited to dine at the same table in Boston houses; they went together on a day’s excursion to Lowell, on an ocean fishing trip by steamboat (same, 5, 18 Sept. 1827), and, much later, on a trip to Niagara and Canada with ABA, 6 July–1 Aug. 1843 (Brooks, Farm Journal, and JQA, Diary, for that interval). From 1819 to 1827 Mr. Brooks owned a cast of the Binon bust of JA and in the latter year acquired a framed engraving of JQA (Waste Book, 1 May 1819, 6 July, 27 Aug. 1827). No serious political differences between the two men had developed. Earlier a Federalist, Brooks in those years was a contributor to Whig causes, deeply concerned in the career of his son-in-law Edward Everett whose entrance into politics JQA had fostered and who remained an Adams supporter through the Presidential term (Frothingham, Everett
, p. 75–116 passim, 134, 295; Bemis, JQA
, 2:74).
On Francis Cunningham, with whom CFA had been on terms of some intimacy at Harvard but not since, see vol. 1:130, 232–302
passim.